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Crime Report: More young people robbed

July 28. A young man and woman, both 19, were robbed while standing on the corner of Germantown and Southampton avenues at 8:15 p.m. According to the police report, five African American males approached the couple and one of them allegedly started hitting the man. The woman attempted to call the police on her telephone when another male grabbed her phone and ran. No injuries were reported.

Two similar incidents in which a gang of young men threatened other young people to get their phones and cash occurred last week as well. Young people should be careful in the area after dark.

Aug 1 200 block of West highland Ave. An apartment was reported burglarized of the following items: a box of silverware, a suitcase, an inscribed, gold bracelet, a gold watch, a gold necklace, a silver chain and a Chase Manhattan credit card.

Aug 2 Valley Green Rd. A woman jogging in the park returned to her parked car to find the passenger window smashed and her purse stolen. The purse contained her drivers license, credit cards and other important paperwork.

Aug 2 Unit Block of West Springfield Ave. A woman went to check on a house she was watching. When she entered she was startled by a man coming down the front stairs. The man turned and fled through a rear door that had been kicked in to gain entry. When police arrived they found the master bedroom ransacked. Nothing was reported missing or stolen at the time. The man was described as a black male, 26 to 30 years old, large build, clean shaven, and wearing a white t-shirt.

Aug. 2 Unit block of E. Gravers Lane. A man returned to his Volkswagen GT to find that someone had smashed his passenger window and taken a GPS device and a backpack containing headphones

Summary – Five crimes for week: one burglary, one robbery and two thefts from vehicles, one breaking and entering. For other crimes this week, see front page story of Delphine Gallery robbery and crime brief on the assault with a deadly weapon.

If you have been the victim of a crime and would like information, service or support, call Northwest Victims Service, 6301 Germantown Ave., Second Floor, Suite One, 215-438-4410. The service is free.

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“Young people should be careful in the area after dark”? Are you kidding me? With that mindset, parents (including myself) will make sure their kids are ‘being careful’ to not get robbed/assaulted by quickly moving out of Chestnut Hill to Lower Merion or Swarthmore. Perhaps instead the police should be in the area after dark to make sure these roving bands of young african american males aren’t in our neighborhood to rob and assault people. Or perhaps the police should hang out on Germantown Ave around 5:15pm to make sure young african american men dressed up as women don’t rob jewelry stores at gunpoint. Or on E. Hartwell to deter BB gunpoint robberies around lunchtime. Or near every bank in CH that has been robbed in the past year. Enough is enough, Philly PD – if you don’t start enforcing the law around here and deterring criminals from outside the neighborhood from ruining our area, there’ll be nobody living here anymore to serve and protect.

cheers to nutter

Taking into account the fact that CH is part of the 14th district (2nd largest district in the city) One that covers all of Mt.Airy, Germantown and Chestnut Hill its not entirely fair to blame the police themselves maybe if the folks down at city hall did a better job of managing funds this wouldn’t be happening. What do you expect when police officers have been getting layer off for the past 5 years? What do you expect when instead of paying police salaries city hall is putting money towards painting garbage trucks with flowers? It’s nice and all but lets be serious, crime is rampant in the city and frankly the police don’t have the numbers or means to control it.

Mike

I totally agree with you that the city has very misplaced priorities, and that the budget and resources are stretched, but I think all CH folks are asking for is in exchange for their meaningful tax dollars, the city owes us a minimum level of police presence, if nothing else as a nod to us being just as entitled to those resources as people in higher crime areas are. Most of us in CH have made the choice to tolerate the high taxes, etc. to live within Philly’s city limits because we love it here in the NW…which makes lots of our friends in the ‘burbs shake their heads at the lack of logic that goes into that choice and indeed often becomes a labor of love – nobody’s saying otherwise, and crime, taxes, and corruption in the city will always happen. But, surely the police can be directed to spare a few dedicated patrols to our neighborhood. I really don’t think it would take much in terms of police presence to prevent what’s been going on this year, but, aside from that, I think CH folks just need the city to send us a signal that they acknowledge and appreciate us as Philly residents who have made a choice to live here, just as much as Center City, University City, or other net-contributors to the city’s resources have who enjoy far-greater amounts of attention from City Hall.

ml1234

Where are the police? No fear for the perpetrators, that’s for sure. Fear is the only motivator for these criminals, and right now they are not afraid.

Mike

Agreed. I’m by no means a “gun person,” but when we’re hearing stories like these it makes you wonder whether having one is a smart option since you can’t depend on the police to keep bands of thugs roaming the neighborhood from smacking you around or having a gun pointed at you and then having your cash/cell phone stolen in broad daylight/early evening. Pretty lame and really sad that we even have to have this discussion since overall CH is an awesome and unique area, but it feels like people are starting to get fed up (including this poster) and I fear for where that may lead if this isn’t addressed.

ml1234

If Rudy Guiliani could make NY City subways safe (He did), it should not be hard to make Chestnut Hill safe..the formula is simple…let the perpetrators know there are consequences for their actions….and give the Police the authority they need to harass these groups the same way the groups harass others.

Mike

Rudy did make NY safe…I grew up in NY in Queens during the bad old days and enjoyed it during the subsequent heyday and only moved to Philly a couple years ago…however, the problem now is that if police receive the authority they need to actually enforce the laws and go after these thugs as you mention and NYC employed, certain groups allege ‘racism’ and ‘civil rights violations.’ It happened here with the end of Stop and Frisk a few years ago, and they’re currently scaling it back in NYC while they debate its future use…meanwhile, the subsequent surge in crime both here and there (shootings and robberies are up substantially in NY this year just as they are in Philly) is the direct result of that. There absolutely will be a tipping point…it happened in the 1970s/80s and all the hardworking, tax-paying people fled the city, and if this continues it will erase all the progress that has been made ever since. Wake up Philly – or else lots of us will be moving to the ‘burbs.

Fed UP

Agreed. It doesn’t seem like it is just here though. My old neighborhood- Queen Village, was for the most part ok. They would have shootings, but always in the same block by the projects and it always seemed connected to gangs. Now I hear of stuff all the time, and it isn’t contained anymore. I fear that the crime in Germantown will increase and just move North, which is why so many of us are afraid and considering moving out. The newspapers had reported an increase in crime in district 14 back in the beginning of the year, and we’re district 14.

19118citizen

what a joke

how do you be careful when a group approaches you and assaults you? carry a gun and shoot them? or move out?

all around the water tower, on Hartwell, Germantown, Ardleigh, and the armed robbery on the Avenue which happened at 5pm in broad daylight

need more Philly cops, and you see a gang of kids stop them and check them out

this is headed in one of only a few directions, people move, people retaliate or the same old keep happening

there will be the tipping point

losers, I am sure they all start their nights from the Water Tower

Furiousfemale

This is disgusting. I moved to CH from the city to avoid these types of crimes. Now no area is perfect- there will continue to be some form of crime, but aggravated assaults? armed robberies? What is next? Rape? Murder? These are happening in broad daylight or super early in the evening at 8. 8 isn’t “late at night.” 8 is after a late dinner. This is going to effect rents and businesses because people will start moving out or stop coming here for dinners. I’m starting to wonder if it isn’t time I stop renting and look into buying in the suburbs where this kind of stuff doesn’t happen.

The police need to be in the neighborhood- on Germantown Avenue, period. There is no excuse for this. There should be more money put into the police force, more cops stationed in neighborhoods, etc.